Frig Hatch discovery - help!

[reelmpg]

Opened the Frig hatch for the first time and was surprised to find a loose piece of wood and a melted hatch cover. Pictures below. This is an MPG 184 upper utility hatch which is for the back of the Norcold. Our unit sat dealer lots for a long time so we are slowly discovering there has been some creative dealer maintenance - we also suspect it was taken out for demo as their are clear signs of wear. Hopefully, one of you can help with my questions. 1)The loose piece of wood is partially obstructing the view of the frig coils - kinda wedged in there. Do other owners have this piece of wood in the compartment? If so, where is it mounted (up or down). 2)The lower right corner of the hatch is warped from melting. Has anyone else seen this? Our frig has not been operating as we expected...wondering if we need to take it in for warranty.

Judy

 

[cookie]

I suspect that the piece of wood is a baffle that someone installed to aid the airflow across the cooling fins. That is something that some of us have done on our own.
Its difficult for me to visualize your last picture of the cover, but I see a different color. Could this be a protective sheet that needs to be removed before use?
Just a couple of thoughts.

Peace
Dave

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 4

 

[wdk450]

Judy:
Your piece of wood is probably a GOOD thing. This is serving as a refrigerator venting side airflow baffle, preventing the rising air airflow from bypassing parts of the cooling unit tubing. I have usually seen/made sheet metal for this, as wood is more flammable fuel in an area that is the primary source of RV fires. As to the evidently melted plastic on the access cover, I can't come with a good idea short of a small, quickly extinguished fire. I would think there would be much more evidence if this had happened. Maybe concentrated reflected sunlight like what happened recently nearby a new, glass-fronted building in London.
While you are concerned with the refrigerator, you might want to invest in a self-discharging halon fire extinguisher for about $175 to put in the refrigerator compartment for peace of mind. You can websearch "Mac the Fire Guy" or RV Cooling Unit Warehouse" to find these extinguishers.

 

[evolvingpowercat]

To improve the airflow for the refrigerator in my Edge I used some Dynamat I had laying around. Its self adhesive on one side, self supporting and moldable and pretty much fire proof. My Edge had a two wall vents and there was no attempt by the factory to make the air flow efficient as suggested in the Dometic installation manual. What Heartland does works but it is not optimal so many of us have gone beyond what we get from the factory.